Catching some Zeds ;-)

Well as the autumn goes on thoughts of predators come to mind, and having caught some tiny roach I thought I'd have a go for the Soars Zander, I as bailiff/secretary/part time speci hunter have heard tales of good Zander from the river, including a 12lb "golden" specimen from the Pillings section. Zed's are well documented in the stilwaters that flood into the Soar around Syston, I myself had a couple of half right fish from the Syston Soar, but with a 20yr old son boasting of his 10lb King Lear fish the pressure was well and truly on, so with the other half off on a girls night out I seized the chance to get out into the local layby's , park up and march off to the river ;-), I always thought that them alien species fed as dusk decended and stopped an hour after lights out ala perch. Well I set up with an hour of daylight left and having found I'd forgotten my wire trace's I had to fanny about making up some 14inch traces, single size4 attached to Drennan 12lb wire, dead small roach was the bait, I cut the tail off and cut into the body cavity to pop the swimbladder and release them there juices. Crayfish are a bit of a pain here and I will take a net next time to catch them so if anyones got a good recipe I'm all ears. Daylight passed and to be honest if it hadn't been for a new DAB radio and a shiney new I phone to play with I'd have been back in the lay by much earlier, but hay ho come 10pm the right hand rod gave a couple of bleeps and the improvised shower curtain bite indicator rose nicely and I struck into what I thought was the bottom, then the bottom thumped and I thought hell I've got one on, after a couple of false attempts the white submarine rose to the waiting net and with all the satisfaction that comes with catching your chosen prey I lifted the net, after some cafufle I got the fish weighed 8lb 8 she went, elation PB beaten by 2lb8oz. I slipped her back after a quick pic on the new phone rueing the mistake of leaving the camera at home, 10 mins later little brother's gracing the net, about 3lb, I don't know I was a bit blasey now, I mean I've smashed my PB so this was small fry lol. I packed up just before the chippy shut after all the good lady wouldn't be cooking a hearty meal after her night out ;-) . The Soar's zander are obviously growing well, maybe that's why the roach fishing is in decline, who knows, all I can say that there's a cracking bit of sport to be had if you want to park up in lay bys and get your tackle out.

 All 8lb 8 of Soar Zander

 I for one will be out again and I'm hoping to make my son's PB look small with a true river fish.
To change the subject the AMAL have some 2000 associate members and I'd love to receive some reports from our guys/gals who are fishing our waters, please message me with reports and I'll enlighten the world of our exploits. Cheers for now